Expurgation

Today Kahuna dreamt of a sun rise she hadn’t witnessed in years.

It left a bittersweet taste at the tip of her tongue. Squinting both eyes, her vision slowly cleared to catch sight of the metal closet space she shared with seven unfortunate souls. Cly, a young one, sat in front of her, trembling as he cradled his left side. Wheezing in gasps, his wide eyes caught Kahuna, freezing her with his fear. He thrashed around in a frenzy until a short, bandaged stump came into view.

Swallowing thickly, she struggled to reign in the bile rising from her throat. After masking a look of cool indifference, she crawled over to Cly and examined what was left of his mutilated arm, sighing in relief at the clean wound at the edge of his elbow. Luckily, the Repo on shift today hadn’t been careless this time so Cly wouldn’t need any extra bandages. He blinked twice and twitched his mouth at her in gratitude. Kahuna nodded, glancing sideways at the rest of them as she crawled back to her spot.

“At least it wasn’t his entire arm this time,” an older woman whispered at her right side in a hoarse voice.

“Let’s hope the next one is as lucky as him,” replied a scraggly man a decade and a half older than Kahuna. Two others murmured in agreement half-heartedly.

Strangers on a surface level, they each shared something in common; the harvesting of their bodies. The Repos, formally known as physicians, conducted live experiments on them in the name of science. All to revive humanity, they were told. When the global blackout rendered all electric devices useless paperweights, a relentless virus consumed the world. The Scarlet influenza began five years ago and callously ravaged all resources and livelihoods, wiping out entire families. The few that did survive were offered generously paid internships at medical facilities to have research examinations conducted on them with the hope of finding a cure. Their unsuccessful attempts left the survivors with souvenirs in the form of spider web scars, amputated limbs or missing organs. The facility operated as nothing more than a human slaughterhouse.

Kahuna took notice of a pair of twin girls sitting beside her, huddled together and sobbing quietly. They whispered words of comfort to each other in Spanish, reminding her of the first night she arrived, before the last shred of normalcy deteriorated from the nation. Switching gazes to the rest, the tattered clothing and gaunt faces gave them all a uniformed appearance of perpetual exhaustion and suffering.

Only one seemed out of place, wearing a determined smirk with obsidian hair tied neatly at the nape of her neck. Crouched behind the heavy door at the corner of the room was her older sister, Aasira. From the dim overhead light, Kahuna could barely recognize her sibling from the copper heart shaped locket perched below her collar bone. The necklace suddenly swung wildly back and forth, mimicking Aasira's fighting stance. A wave of icy fear stabbed Kahuna's chest.

Leaning against the wall, she stood abruptly, her calves cramping painfully in protest before settling down just as she reached her sister.

“Don’t,” she pleaded, clasping one hand and a part of her right arm at the older woman.

Aasira was only two years her senior but seemed decades older. Crow’s feet marked the edges of her eyes and the center of her forehead dented in slightly, giving her a constant angered expression.

“They’ve taken enough,” Aasira answered, her face resolute when she gestured at the metal rod hooked below her knee, replacing the bottom of her left leg, and grimaced at Kahuna's right wrist. Following her glare, she stared hard the open space and could almost remember what her hand had looked like before it was taken away.

“There’s too many of them and we’re all in bad shape to help you. The Repo's will take your other leg when they catch you” Kahuna countered, wringing her wrist tightly.

Aasira grinned. “That’s only if they catch me. State track championship sprinter, remember?”

Kahuna shook her head fiercely and the air thickened, wrapping around her like a hot blanket to suffocate her.

“’Na, we have to do something before they kill us.”

Her head snapped forward at those words. Aasira's eyes widened in alert, continuing. “Word has gotten around through the air duct vine.”

Pointing at ceiling duct above, she leaned in to whisper. “Healthy volunteers have been disappearing. Repos say they’re discharged and back home but the truth is they were redistributed. Completely. Yesterday they took one from the room beside us. Today we’re next.”

Kahuna muffled the gasp escaping her lips and clenched her hands into tight fists.

“What do I do?” she asked, listening to the muffled thudding footsteps coming their way.

Aasira swallowed and gingerly removed their only remaining family heirloom, the antique locket. The jewel hid secrets from the past and served as a constant reminder that life was accessible outside. Putting it on her sister, the rosy brown heart cooled her skin just like Aasira’s hand that gently cradled her cheek.

“Distract the guard. When I point at you, scream out what these last 5 years have done to you. Give it everything you have. Our lives depend on it.”

She jutted her sore jaw forward, a rush of pent frustration bursting from her throat.

“Are you ready?” her sister asked raising a pointed finger at her.

Kahuna nodded, opening her mouth just as the door opened.